Of the low-cost China-headquartered mobile specialists we’re constantly monitoring, expecting to take over the world soon, Meizu has been by far the most timid of late. But their highly anticipated Xiaomi Mi 4 rival is now official at last, and the promised turnaround time is remarkable.

Already up for local pre-orders, the Meizu MX4 shall start shipping on September 20, bringing to mind Apple’s traditional launch swiftness. Only odds are initial stocks will be fairly limited, plus an international spread is merely a dream at this point.

And for once, you’ll be needing the extra internal wiggle room, as Meizu probably took one too many pages from Apple’s playbook, “forgetting” to equip the MX4 with an external microSD card slot. Another major flaw is the octa-core MediaTek MT6595 chip inside the hood, a 32-bit-supporting processing solution that can only access four cores at any given time.

Compared to the Xiaomi Mi 4, as well as a couple of Western giants, the MX4 also comes up a bit short in the RAM department, packing “just” 2 gigs. Still, for $290, the 5.35-inch smartphone offers plenty of bang, boom and wow.

First and foremost, a winning design, with virtually no vertical bezels and a resulting jaw-dropping 75.5 percent screen to body ratio. Secondly, a 20.7 MP rear-facing Sony Exmor RS camera ripped off borrowed from the Xperia Z2. Then, a premium aluminum construction. And last but not least, impressive juice, courtesy of a massive 3,100 mAh battery. Oh, and also, a classic, classy, crisp 1,080p display with 418 ppi pixel density.

When do Xiaomi and Meizu plan to begin their Western blitzkrieg again?